rear brake adjustment

I’ve been experiencing some brake issues recently so I decided to open up the rear drums and see exactly what setup is on the Australian issue Io’s.

To remove the drums you need two screws to press the drum off the axle, the bolts that hold the top radiator supports are perfect and you can take one from each side without effecting the radiator.

Once the drums were off I saw that the auto-adjusters are the same crap design you find on early 80’s Holdens, they actuate from the twisting motion going forward instead of reverse and as a result if you don’t do any heavy braking for a while the adjusters will not be able to tension up the shoes and your brakes will no longer auto adjust. The reverse actuating mechanisms are beter as they have ore throw however also will stop working if they gum-up or you don't do any heavy braking.

Underneath, On the backing plates there is a small rubber bung you can remove to expose the adjuster without needing to remove the wheel or drum (when you look through the hole it looks like a narrow serrated wheel-like cog a bit like a coin) and with a flat blade screwdriver you can lever against the edge of the wheel to wind the tension up. If you are levering in the correct direction you should hear some clicks as the auto-adjust lever inside the brakes rides over the serrations on the wheel.

I jacked each rear wheel off the ground in turn with the gearbox in neutral - handbrake off, keep winding the tensioner up until the rear brake just drags when you rotate the wheel both directions. Repeat on the other side.

This resulted in noticeably less nose-dive under heavy braking and the handbrake now holds easily on 45deg slope.

hope this helps